Such a shock absorber has been described in the German specification (DE-OS) 3,302,790 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,564,176), for instance. It serves to damp the shock or impact of a mass moving along a path of travel, as for instance in conjunction with terminal position damping in pneumatic or hydraulic drives. The shock energy is generally transferred to the piston by way of a shock rod connected with the piston and which extends out of the housing for connection with a member on which the shock acts. Although this type of shock absorber is highly satisfactory for applications in which the piston is subject to high-speed and/or high energy, there is hardly any damping action if the impact speed of the mass to be damped is less, as for instance under 0.3 m per second, that is to say the damping device of the this known shock absorber often fails to react so that there is hardly any damping action. Although the response threshold of such a known shock absorber may be reduced, there is then less satisfactory operation at high impact speeds. At any event, although known shock absorbers are able to cope with certain problems to a sufficient extent, applications in which there are continual changes in the speed and/or mass or, respectively, weight in connection with the load to be damped are not able to be adequately dealt with for the reasons stated above.